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Pipedown, along with other anti-noise groups such as the UK Noise Association, has long argued that noise directly harms human health, physical as well as psychological. A recent survey, reported in Time Health, provides further more detailed evidence of this harm. It is becoming increasingly clear that noise affects human health as directly as smoking does.

A new review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, reports that high levels of noise are probably very bad for your heart. A connection between noise pollution and cardiovascular disease has been observed in numerous studies over the years, the new review said. High noise levels from road traffic and aircraft are connected to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, stroke and heart failure even after allowing for other factors like air pollution and socioeconomic status.

But despite this growing body of evidence, little is known about how noise pollution might contribute to heart problems. To shed some light on that question, researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany compiled and analysed findings from dozens of previous studies on noise and various health outcomes.

Based on the existing evidence, the new review suggests that noise disrupts the body on the cellular level. Specifically, researchers say, it induces stress responses and activates the sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system. This causes a spike in stress hormones, which can eventually lead to cardiovascular damage. Noise also seems to be a driving factor in oxidative stress and metabolic abnormalities which could contribute to other diseases like diabetes. For people who already have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, living in a noisy environment could accelerate issues like atherosclerosis.

“The important point is that noise is not just annoying,” lead author Dr. Thomas Munzel, director of the department of internal medicine, said. While his paper focuses largely on cardiovascular and metabolic implications of noise, he also points out that there’s growing evidence that chronic noise can also cause mental-health diseases (including depression and anxiety), and can impair the cognitive development of children.

One way noise pollution probably affects heart health is by disrupting sleep. In studies, nighttime noise has been linked to an increase in blood pressure, even when people didn’t wake up or realise their sleep had been disrupted. ‘You can can close your eyes but not your ears,” Munzel said. ‘Our body will always react with a stress reaction.’

But even chronic noise during the day will probably have major effects on the body, said Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute, Saint Luke’s Hospital, in Kansas City. ‘When we’re exposed to loud noises, the sympathetic nervous system dominates,” said O’Keefe, who was not involved in the new review. “That can really put your system on alert and makes you jumpy, which can wear down your resilience — just like any other type of physical or mental stress.” O’Keefe said that, as a cardiologist who focuses on prevention, he’s read a lot about the connection between noise pollution and heart health. “But I don’t really think it’s something the average physician or cardiologist is particularly tuned into,” he said.

Munzel said people in urban areas all over the world should worry about noise pollution, and that the problem is getting worse as more and more people are living in large cities. “It is important to note that no one can develop tolerance to noise,” he said, despite what many people believe. In fact, people’s cardiovascular systems actually seem to become more sensitive to noise — and so more easily damaged — over time.

While there’s no volume threshold established for heart-disease risk, Munzel said that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels (the level of a typical conversation in an office) has the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. A telephone ringing produces about 80 decibels, a jackhammer about 100, and an aircraft at takeoff about 120.

Most background music is between 80 and 90 decibels, well over the threshold at which damage to the cardiovascular system has been observed if below that at which damage to hearing becomes apparent.

“I hope that in future politicians will make laws that protect the people from environmental stressors,” he said. A reduction in overall noise pollution, he said, “will be a factor that can be influenced by politicians only and not by patients and doctors.’

Pipedown, in association with other groups, intends to keep pressing politicians on this absolutely vital issue. In the long run, it is indeed a matter of life and death.

Following our hard gained success with Marks and Spencer in 2016, we need to decide which national chain to target next. The chain must be national NB.

The Co-op, HSBC, Superdrug, Costa and Pret à Manger have all been suggested.

A recent survey of high streets in four British cities suggests that most places are still filled with piped music. The stress this can cause those working there all day is starting to attract notice.

Let Pipedown know your own choice during the next few weeks. (Anyone is welcome to make suggestions but those from members will naturally carry more weight.) The winner of this rogues’ gallery will be announced in March.

Recent reports indicate that several train companies are considering dropping Quiet Carriages on trains, on the grounds that such carriages are difficult and expensive to police and not really very popular. Write in to the heads of the relevant rail companies around the UK and tell them just how wrong they are.

And also write to the newspapers and even to your MP. This pusillanimity should be stopped!

Andy Mellors is the top personage at South West Railways, and his email address is andy.mellors@swrailway.com

Other CEOs’ e-addresses can be found at https://www.ceoemail.com/index-search.php

Piped music is a global problem that is, however, best dealt with nationally. Exact circumstances differ from country to country and can require different approaches. Complaints about piped music come in from many countries but few people have enough time or energy to do anything about it. So it is very encouraging that Warren Fahey, the renowned author, musician and cultural historian, has declared that he is ready to launch Pipedown Australia.

Anyone living in or near Australia who detests piped music should get in touch with him at wfahey@bigpond.net.au

Pipedown Australia should soon have its own website, a presence on social media and even celebrated supporters. Keep an eye open for it.

Meanwhile in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, the first fully operational American chapter of Pipedown has been making waves and getting publicity. See https://www.michigandaily.com/section/ann-arbor/quiet-ann-arbor-looks-limit-pipped-music and https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/12/the-backlash-against-piped-music/548399/

Contact Gina Choe ginachoe@umich.edu if you want to support their initiative.

‘The omnipresent curse of annoying muzak’ is the fourth most commonly hated aspect of hotels today, reports The Good Hotel Guide in its just published 2018 edition. (Poor Wifi reception, dim lighting in bedrooms and ‘captive’ coat hangers were the first three most hated things in modern hotels.) The Good Hotel Guide, one of the few such guides to remain wholly independent and impartial, gives full details about the piped music – or lack of – in each hotel reviewed.

All ASDA supermarkets turned off their muzac and reduced other acoustic and visual disturbances to a minimum for an hour last Tuesday to allow people with autism to shop in peace. This is a real advance: a major chain at last recognising the impact excessive noise can have on its customers. ASDA needs to expand the scheme to having well-advertised quiet hours every day of the year, however. Autism sufferers are of course especially vulnerable but they are not the only shoppers harmed by piped music. The 15% of the population with hearing problems are also badly affected, as are people with many other problems, from hyperacusis and tinnitus to ME. It is high time supermarkets woke up to this problem.

Email ASDA’s CEO Sean Clarke to press him to extend the scheme and make it a permanent feature of the chain, not a one-off. sean.clarke@asda.co.uk

Meanwhile, keep protesting to the Co-op which is finally showing signs of listening to its customers. Email the Co-op’s CEO Steve Murrells, perhaps also pointing out how well Aldi and Lidl are doing without any music. steve.murrells@coop.co.uk

Wetherspoon, owner and operator of more than 900 pubs in Britain and Ireland, has reported an almost 28 percent jump in annual pretax profit, helping to send shares in the company to a record high. Adding to the cheerful mood, the company said trading had remained strong in recent weeks. “Since the year end, Wetherspoon’s like-for-like sales have continued to be encouraging and have increased by 6.1 percent,” Chairman Tim Martin said.

A vital part of Wetherspoon’s appeal to customers is the (relative) quiet of their pubs, thanks to the lack of piped music in all branches. Other pub chains should take note.

The Good Food Guide 2018 once more includes information about whether or not the place reviewed has music (though it does not specify what sort of music).

The GFG now reports that more and more establishments are alienating their customers by deafening them with ‘Glastonbury-force’ piped music.

This year’s guide, just published , warns of an ‘unprecedented trend for noisy restaurants, which is leading to a spike in complaints from sensitive eared customers….Restaurants are getting noisier – that’s what our readers, this year in unprecedented numbers, are telling us. Noise levels, already amplified by bare-bones design, are being raised by music played at Glastonbury force. Everyone loves a restaurant that has a buzzing, vibrant atmosphere, but it becomes exhausting and self-defeating when, as one old hand told us: ‘I have never heard such loudly amplified music in an eating place. It was so loud that I couldn’t hear a word the waitress was saying, and vice versa. We had to gesture and point.”

The recent very common trend for minimalist bare walls and floors, ‘not just in hipster places’, is also changing the acoustics in restaurants and making it difficult for people to hear each other.

Pipedown in collaboration with Action on Hearing Loss (aka RNID), is planning a fresh campaign to make restaurateurs far more aware of this problem.

AHL has recently (20th September) relaunched its Speak Easy Campaign, encouraging diners to record noise levels with an app that can be downloaded onto a mobile.

A new survey from New York reveals the effects on human health of noise of all sorts. Noise is now second only to air pollution in its adverse effects on human health. Hypertension and cancer are two of the potentially fatal illnesses that excessive, non-stop music – which triggers a fight-or-flight response – can cause. And, as the report in Harpers Bazaar magazine points out, you can no longer hope to find a refuge in bars, hotels, restaurants or even bookshops, as almost all are filled with piped music!

‘Loud noise correlated with high-stress events that could damage tissue: thunder, animal roars, screams, or war cries,’ says Bart Kosko, Ph.D., a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and the author of Noise. So, in response to rare but loud threats, we evolved to spurt out adrenalin, cortisol, and other stress hormones—chemicals that jacked up our bodies so we could fight or flee. A constant gush of stress hormones actually restructures the brain, contributing to tumor development, heart disease, respiratory disorders, and more. And of course, our hormonal endocrine systems haven’t had time to learn that car stereos aren’t out to get us. ‘Today we regularly get similar stress-hormone surges from car alarms, ringing phones, police sirens, leaf blowers, jackhammers, and amplified voices.’

Carol Caplan has had a Brilliant Idea: handing out Pipedown leaflets to concert goers as they enter or leave a concert hall. As people who appreciate music when freely chosen are among our keenest members, targeting people at such concerts should prove far more fruitful than thrusting leaflets at the general public.

Carol would much appreciate other Pipedowners’ company and support. This should take members very little time but ideally you should live in or near London.

She is also interested in starting a Local Group for Pipedowners living in London, especially those living in the N2, N3, N8, N10, N11, N12, N14,N21, N22 post codes.